I can't speak for anyone else but I don't worry about just how accurate a bullet is for particular hunting rifle. You can have a rifle that shoots a premium bullet into .50" all day long from the bench. Guess what? There ain't any benches out in the boonies. nYou'd probably do just as good with a rifle that shoots 1.50" consistently off the bench to at least 300 yards and more. As far as practice goes, find a bullet that shoots as close as possible to your premium hunting bullet and practice with that. AS the .270 is the cartridge in question I'll use that. One of my pet deer and antelope loads shoots the 150 gr. Sierra Game King from a 24" Winchester M70 XTR into .50 to .75" groups. I use it for deer and antelope. I can use the exact same charge of powder, brass and primer and shoot the 150 gr. Nobler Partition into literally the same group. Doing a mix and match, the Sierra vs the Nosler the composite groups was one inch. I did the practice with the Sierras and did the hunt with the Nosler.
Want another? I shoot the 180 gr. Sierra Pro-Hunter spitzer for practice and the 180 gr. Nobler Partition as my hunting load. Shooting three rounds each at the same target gave a group about one inch or a hair larger. (1.10") I do a short practice session with the premium bullet just before the hunt just to be sure everything is working as it should and one test group in the area of the hunt just in case colder temps might make a change.
Paul B.
Sounds to me like you do the same thing I (and I think a lot of others) do – It is pretty common for me to substitute loads with inexpensive cup-and-core bullets for my hunting loads when practicing at the range. So long as they shoot close to the same point of aim it isn’t a problem but I always take a few shots with the hunting loads just before going afield, mostly to verify scope adjustment with the hunting loads.
While there aren’t any benches out in the field, there are improvised shooting rests that can provide very stable shooting platforms. Over the years I have used my pack from a prone position, bipods attached to the rifle, stumps, rocks, hay bales, tree limbs, tree trunks, fence posts and pretty much anything I could find that would improve stability for the shot. You make a good point, though – most of the time the difference between a .5” and 1.5” load won’t make any difference in the field. At 300 yards the 1.5” load will have an error radius of 2-1/4”compared to .75” for the .5” load. While that can make a difference in the prairie dog villages a 1.5” difference is not very significant when shooting antelope or larger.
Still, given two loads with my preferred bullets, I’ll take the one that shoots to .5” rather than the one that shoots to 1.5”, for the same reason I prefer certain bullets – they don’t perform any worse in the field and while there is no guarantee they WILL make a difference the possibility exists that they MIGHT make a difference. The same reasoning goes into choosing a lot of the gear I take hunting, like chains for all four tires instead of just two, two rubber chain tensioners for each tire plus spares, a chain repair kit, a second rifle, a basic tool kit, a couple of tow chains, a come-along, jumper cables, extra batteries, an extra pair of boots and other stuff. While most of it is not needed in any particular year, all of it has been needed at one time or another and some multiple times. Last night I bought 4 new A/T tires with aggressive tread for this year’s elk hunts. While I could probably have made it through hunting season and the winter snow and ice with the ones I had, they were getting worn and deeper tread MIGHT keep me from getting stuck or going off the road. It is kind of like buying fire insurance for your home – while you hope you never need it, it can make a big difference in your situation if your house burns.
